Engage In Regular Exercise
Regular exercise is one of the best tools to minimize the effects of mental fatigue. According to a recent study, higher physical activity results in less fatigue regardless of your age or gender.
Staying active through outdoor or virtual workouts gives you a boost of positivity, energizes you, and improves your sleep. Aerobic and muscle-strengthening workouts also help treat fibromyalgia and prevent other health conditions.
Mental Fatigue And Modern Lifestyle
In the past, the vast majority of jobs demanded physical effort. Nowadays, prevailing jobs are knowledge-based and demand mental effort. As a result, people have too much on their plate: long working hours, commuting, families, mortgages, and deadlines. When we continually deal with stressful situations, our cortisol levels increase, and mental exhaustion takes its place.
In a survey in 2007, 65.7% of USA workers stated that they experienced mental exhaustion at work. Consequently, it negatively affected their productivity at work. Apart from its influence on work-life, mental fatigue tremendously affects peoples social and private lives. Furthermore, this type of exhaustion is one of the symptoms in serious diseases such as cancer, Alzheimers disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and many others.
Give Your Eyes A Break
Staring at a computer for long hours while you work causes eye fatigue, which can tire you out and affect your ability to focus.
Every once in a while, look away from your computer screen. Focus on distant objects or gaze out the window for a minute. Lowering your screen’s brightness can also help your eyes.
If you manage a workplace, consider this computer workstations advice from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration .
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Stress Vs Mental Exhaustion
Nearly everyone experiences stress from time to time its the bodys natural reaction to new, overwhelming, or scary situations.
This biological response results in a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, that help you respond to perceived threats and high-pressure situations that require quick thinking.
Once youve dealt with or removed the stressor, your bodys hormones should go back to typical levels. But chronic or long-term stress can play a role in mental exhaustion.
When you continue to face a challenge or set of challenges that activate your bodys stress response, your cortisol levels remain high. Eventually, too-high cortisol levels can interfere with normal body processes, such as digestion, sleep, and immune system function. In short, if you dont feel well and arent getting enough rest, your brain doesnt have the chance it needs to recharge and reset.
You might feel physically exhausted:
- after an intense workout or other physical activity
- when you get several nights of interrupted or inadequate sleep
- if you have a physically demanding job
- during an illness or while recovering from one
Yet physical and mental exhaustion can also play off each other. So if youre dealing with one, theres a good chance you might also start to notice the other.
And on the flip side, mental exhaustion can affect physical performance, making exercise and other tasks that require endurance feel considerably more physically taxing and demanding.
Warning Signs Of Mental Fatigue Or Exhaustion
Mental exhaustion may come on suddenly, and It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet the constant demands of your day-to-day life. According to the National Security Council, NSC, fatigue impacts most Americans and can lead to disaster all too often. However, you can easily prevent it if youre aware of the symptoms of burnout so you can identify them and prepare for it beforehand.
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Take Frequent Breaks During The Day
A few minutes to rest and recharge during the day can go a long way to stave off mental exhaustion. Rest breaks dont necessarily mean you need to sleep. A break could be any of the following:
- Walk away from your computer for a few minutes, go outside if you can, or stop to eat a healthy snack.
- Follow the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, look at something that is 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
- Grab an adult coloring book or some scrap paper for doodling.
- Close your eyes and allow yourself to daydream for a few minutes.
Further reading:How to rest your brain more effectively
What Causes Mental Fatigue
Mental fatigue is complex and usually isnt caused by one thing. Contributing factors can be physical like poor nutrition, lack of sleep, or hormonal imbalances or cognitive youve been asking your brain to do too much.
That cognitive overload can take the form of intense focus on a single task over an extended period of time as is the case for those chess grandmasters who burn 6,000 calories in a day. But it can also result from spreading your attention across too many things all of the decisions you have to make, the information you have to process, the emails you need to answer, the tasks you need to keep track of, the chores you need to take care of. To make matters worse, worrying about a task can be as mentally taxing as actually doing it. That means even while youre procrastinating, youre taxing your brain.
All of that cognitive task-switching takes a toll. Imagine a chess player trying to plan out their next five moves and anticipate their opponents reactions while also checking their Slack messages, responding to emails, thinking about what theyll eat for lunch, catching up on the latest trending hashtags on Twitter, and worrying about that project due tomorrow that they havent even started yet.
Luckily, there are steps you can take to manage both the physical and cognitive sides of mental fatigue.
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Outward Signs Of Mental Fatigue
Beyond your mental or physical state, mental fatigue will also impact your behavior. If left unchecked, it can create rifts in your relationships, both personal and professional.
Mental fatigue places a strain on your social interactions, either causing you to lash out at others or withdraw from those closest to you.
You can also experience a sudden lack of motivation. The worse the mental exhaustion, the more likely you are to call in sick, look for reasons to avoid or miss work, or reject social or work-related commitments.
In the worst cases, your productivity may drop dramatically, and you may not recognize the person youve become.
Engage In Regular Physical Activity
Exercise may be the last thing you want to do when youre feeling drained, but its an essential way to increase your energy levels, improve your mood, and increase your overall physical well-being. You dont need to engage for long time periods or at a high intensity to notice benefits. Just do what you can, even if that means dancing to a fun song for five minutes a day and working up to more.
Further reading:Exercise safely after a concussion and the effect of exercise after a brain injury
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What Are The Causes Of Mental Fatigue
Weve already mentioned that mental fatigue most often occurs as a result of prolonged cognitive activity and long-term stress. However, its hard to precisely define the causability of mental exhaustion. Causes of it differentiate between individuals. Nevertheless, some are more prevalent than others. Weve included a list of the most common mental fatigue causes.
Get Treatment At Cognitive Fx
Using advanced brain scan techniques, we can see how our patients’ brains respond to treatment. Over 90% of our patients experience symptom improvement after just one week at our clinic. To see if you are eligible for treatment, .
About Dr. Jaycie Loewen
Dr. Jaycie Loewen is a Clinical Neuroscientist who received her Doctorate of Neuroscience at the University of Utah. Her background includes the study of basic and clinical brain injury, including the publication of research regarding mechanisms of epilepsy pathophysiology. Her work has elucidated the role of glial and neuronal cell profiles in viral-induced brain injury and acute seizures. Dr. Loewen is further a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholar, with a Master’s in Clinical Investigation awarded in 2018, as well as a recipient of the Higher Education Teaching Specialist Certificate. Through these degrees, she obtained experience with patient care and education as well as an understanding of the necessity of respecting patient experience and symptoms.Dr. Loewens focus is firstly patient care and education. She also provides literature analysis and aids in the publication of Cognitive FXs research. Her goal is to improve Cognitive Fxs ability to help patients through equal interaction and communication, as well as the furthering of concussion and mild traumatic brain injury treatment and science.
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Common Symptoms Of Mental Exhaustion
The symptoms of mental exhaustion present themselves in both emotional and physical ways. They can impact your behavior as well as your physical health. It is not uncommon for the symptoms of mental exhaustion to creep up on you during prolonged or extreme stress.
- Emotional Signs of Mental Exhaustion apathy , depression, detachment, anxiety, lack of motivation, and reduced productivity.
- The Physical Signs of Mental Exhaustion headaches, stomach cramps, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and changes in your appetite.
- Behavioral Signs of Mental Exhaustion having more regular sick days off school/work, social isolation, poor performance at work, instances of being unreliable, and unable to keep personal or work commitments.
It Can Be Hard To Recognize Mental And Emotional Exhaustion
One of the big problems with mental and emotional exhaustion is that you often wont realize youre experiencing these problems. Being mindful of triggers can help. We all tend to stretch ourselves in times of stress and transition, Dr. Dannaram said.
Changes can disrupt your system, so youre at risk of mental exhaustion when you start a new job or roleyoure likely to set unrealistic expectations at these times, and mental fatigue can set in. Youre at higher risk for emotional exhaustion when you experience interpersonal changes such as the end of a relationship.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Mental Fatigue
The state of mental fatigue can manifest itself in different ways. As with causes, symptoms of mental fatigue are very individual too. Weve talked with different specialists on this topic and added their answers to our list of the most common symptoms for you to recognize. Specifically, we talked with:
- Inability to act or react to a negative or demanding situation,
- Feelings of impatience and irritability,
- Constant crankiness or anger.
Warning Signs Of Mental Fatigue Or Exhaustion And How To Overcome It
6 min read
Have you ever had one of those days where you just cant muster the strength to get up and begin your day? Have you ever felt like getting out of bed in the morning might just be the most challenging thing youve ever had to do? Ever felt this crushing exhaustion take over you for days on end, not only making you lose focus but also making you lose interest in your daily activities? If you have experienced these behaviors then you are suffering from chronic mental fatigue and this article is written for YOU!
This article will address:
So read on.
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You Have Trouble Sleeping
Insomnia is among the major signs of mental fatigue. It is a common sleep disorder that affects your ability to go to sleep, stay asleep, or affects the quality of sleep you get each night. Such changes in sleep patterns can result in restlessness throughout the day which can greatly affect productivity and efficiency. Luckily, there are numerous self-care tips and remedies that can help you improve the quality of your sleep.
Connect With A Friend
Connecting with a good friend may provide a fresh perspective on your work or life and the things causing you stress. Plan a catch-up session â either in person or over the phone â with someone you trust. As you talk about what you have going on, actively listen to their take on the situation. Maintaining connections and good friendships helps develop work-life balance and objectivity to overcome mental fatigue.
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Extreme Mental Fatigue Leads To Burnout
Your body only has so much ability to compensate for accumulated fatigue until you start to burn out. If you dont employ some coping mechanisms to combat fatigue, says Ivankovich, it can lead to alterations in your brains neurons, decreased performance, ineffective thinking, poor attention span, irritability and insomnia . In serious cases, mental fatigue can be so draining that the associated problems become chronic, even irreversibleit becomes your new normal.
In a society that is being instructed to do more with less, or to work now, sleep later, it is critical to take time to relax, mentally and physically, in an attempt to avoid the accumulation of acute fatigue, says Ivankovich, who points out just how common overload is. In therapy, the number one problem I see is fatigue. People are so driven to be successful that they do twice as much with half of the resourcesemotional, physical, or otherwise.
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Give Yourself Permission To Relax
People often complain about not having enough time, but they sometimes don’t recognize their mental exhaustion. Here are 5 simple tips to recharge mentally that don’t require much of a commitment or the use of energy you don’t have.
1. Spot small opportunities to rest your mind.
Like many people, whenever I have a spare second you’ll find me clicking around on my phone. I like to do this, except when I’m feeling mentally exhausted. If I know I need to rest my mind, I’ll use those little spaces of time to do some “mindfulness lite.” This is usually as simple as just feeling the physical sensation of my body standing, and doing some slow breathing. You can pay attention to any physical sensatione.g., the feeling of your feet making contact with the ground, or the positioning of your hips or shoulders. This is mindfulness for real life and it doesn’t need to be complicated.
2. Reduce excess sensory input, or go mono-sensory.
Take a break from excess light and noise. Spend a few minutes sitting in a dark, silent room and notice how relaxing it is.
Take steps to reduce the excess sensory input you encounter in a typical day. For example, wear headphones on the subway, turn off the TV when you’re not watching it, use night shift mode on your phone, and/or get some blackout curtains. Do whatever will reduce excess, unpleasant sensory input in your life.
3. Give yourself permission to relax.
4. Stop being unrealistic about how much you can get done.
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You Feel A Headache Coming
It is commonly believed that mental exhaustion is something that only affects the mind. However, that is not entirely correct. Signs of mental fatigue are not just limited to emotional and mental changes and disturbances. Physical and behavioral symptoms usually accompany emotional changes as well, hence, random body and muscle aches are the most common indication of mental fatigue. If you feel an onset of a headache coming, in addition to other signs of burnout, there is a good chance you may be suffering from mental exhaustion.
Here Are Some Tips To Help You Get Your Energy Back
If you have felt like you are dragging lately, you may be wondering what is going on. Fatigue is a common symptom that can be caused by a whole host of factors, from medical conditions and stress to poor sleep, says Dr. Stephanie Tung, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an attending psychiatrist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The good news is that in many cases you can make changes that will help bring your energy back, but you need to get to the root of the problem in order to treat it.
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Expend Energy On High
Increase your mental fortitude and emotional development by pursuing high-value activities like reading books , picking up a new skill, or engaging in enriching hobbies and chores. Discover ways to spend your time and make friends that will enhance your quality of life and stop negative overthinking. There are appropriate times and places to binge-watch Netflix. However, your mental health is less likely to deteriorate if you understand how to achieve self-growth and are constantly engaged in fulfilling activities or spending time with people you value.
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Mental Fatigue: Proven Methods For Overcoming A Tired Brain
Do you feel drained, exhausted, and overwhelmed? Youre not alone. Like millions of others, youre likely suffering from mental fatigue. Below, youll learn exactly what mental fatigue is, its main causes, and what steps you can take to overcome it. Achieve mental clarity and inner peace with this guide to beating mental fatigue.
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What Is Mental Fatigue
When your brain feels exhausted and unable to function properly, it leaves you mentally and emotionally drained. This is commonly known as brain fog or mental fatigue.
According to recent research, an overstimulated brain impairs your cognitive abilities. This affects your productivity, , or memory. For example, brain fog makes it hard to concentrate. Even simple household tasks like washing dishes or doing the laundry seem cumbersome.
Mental fatigue is a state of tiredness that sets in when your brains energy levels are depleted. Mental fatigue is usually the result of prolonged stress. Long-term stress can be brought on by a variety of factors, including a challenging life event, a demanding job, or procrastination.
Additionally, a period of chronic stress can be taxing on your mental well-being, leaving you feeling overwhelmed, irritable, and detached.
Long-term mental exhaustion also affects your professional life. When your symptoms arent managed, it leads to workplace burnout. Symptoms of workplace burnout include a lack of belief in your abilities, decreased job satisfaction, and a lack of motivation.
The Covid-19 pandemic has turned mental fatigue into a widespread global issue. The World Health Organization describes this pandemic fatigue as demotivation, alienation, complacency, and hopelessness. As this feeling has become the norm for many people, its increasingly important to learn how to cope with mental fatigue and its symptoms.